Praise for Deceit And Other Possibilities
Winner, Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature • Finalist, California Book Award
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
One of The Millions's Most Anticipated Books of the Year
BookBub, 1 of 27 of the Best Short Stories of All Time
"Hua covers an impressive range of life circumstances . . . These shifts in context are handled artfully; you can tell the author is dedicated to getting the details right . . . Inventive codes of communication—dogged in their attempts to convey respect, honesty, affection—abound throughout the collection, laying bare the burdens of the unspoken." —Jac Jemc, The New York Times Book Review
"Dazzling . . . Hua writes with tenderness, humor, and empathy, imbuing her stories with lovely turns of phrase . . . Fans of Hua's acclaimed first novel, River of Stars (2018), will savor these unforgettable stories." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“This searing debut is about immigrants navigating a new America.” —O, The Oprah Magazine
“Profoundly moving, and impossible to forget...a truly impressive debut.” —Nylon
"Sharp, insightful, witty, and heartbreaking . . . Her assurance with pacing and character prove that she's a master of the short story format." —Hanh Nguyen, Salon
"Exploring immigration and the complex relationship between self and society, the characters in this collection reckon with borders—in all their permutations. Hua’s engaging prose makes for a quick but deeply resonant read." —Sarah Neilson, The Seattle Times
“The men, women and children in Hua’s moving debut often find themselves straddling the volatile fault lines between desire and shame, decorum and rage... She has a deep understanding of the pressure of submerged emotions and polite, face–saving deceptions. The truth comes out, sometimes explosively, sometimes in a quiet act of courage.” —San Francisco Chronicle
"These short stories are about a manipulative 'prophet' who wants his own brush with stardom, selfish men and the women they don’t deserve, and a hopeful Stanford prospective pushed to the edge. Somewhat inspired by real–life events, they’re a testament to Hua’s own curiosity about the strange things that happen in our world that eventually disappear from the news—only to be resurfaced in fiction." —Grace Li, SF Weekly
“An intriguing collection...each of her protagonists is never quite grounded, caught between multiple cultures and countries. Each hides beneath layers of deceit, clinging to lies that enable survival....Hua is a writer to watch.” —Booklist
"First partially published in 2016 by Willow Books, and now with new stories, Deceit and Other Possibilities is a reissued collection from Counterpoint. The stories I read in 2016 are a marvel; I’m excited to read the rest." —R. O. Kwon, Electric Literature, 1 of 56 Books by Women & Nonbinary Writers of Color to Read This Year
“Hua writes with sophistication and the punch of the immigrant experience today . . . exuberant stories filled with nuance and fresh detail.” —LitHub
“Exactly what we need to be reading in this country right now, and probably always. If I had to choose one word to describe Hua’s writing style, it would be personable — you actually feel like her narrators are sitting across the sofa from you, popping open the tab of a soda can as they prepare to tell you their story . . . funny and sad, quick–witted and thought provoking.” —Bustle, the 26 Best Literary Debuts By Women in the Last 5 Years
“A great writer, subversively funny...characters that don’t look anything like ‘model minorities' . . . readable and human.” —Buzzfeed
“Shrewd...hilarious.” —Vice
“These 10 stories follow immigrants to a new America who straddle the uncomfortable line between past and present, allegiances old and new.” —The Millions “Most Anticipated” List
“Rare and generous.” —Bitch Magazine
“Heart–wrenching, implacable....Hua draws the reader in with her power of perception.” —Huffington Post, Book Club Pick of the Week
“There’s little in the way of happy endings. But there is satisfaction in the utility of deceit and destruction, in the characters’ recklessly reclaimed ability to turn up the heat themselves — even if it means they’ll burn.” —Los Angeles Review of Books
“Goes well beyond the buzzwords of identity politics and inflammatory headlines of the day.” —Electric Literature
“The stories Hua presents are remarkably varied—complicating blanket stereotypes about ethnic cultures...Those kinds of subtle contradictions between overlapping identities—and the compromise they require—are what Hua's stories pinpoint and gracefully unravel.” —East Bay Express
“Wry observations...compelling read.” —Brooklyn Magazine
“Readers will feel hijacked by the lines that follow...Hua shows how immigrant families plead, persuade, adapt, and embrace their heritage.” —San Francisco Magazine
“Gazes through the lens of recent immigrants to examine family relationships in all their beauty and complexity...pointed, memorable tales.” —Stanford Magazine
“Diverse, cosmopolitan.” —The Rumpus
“A wonderful sense of modernity.” —San Jose Mercury News
“Fast–paced, dazzling, smart and fun, Vanessa Hua’s debut collection illustrates the insanities and heartbreaks on both sides of the Pacific.” —Gary Shteyngart, author of Lake Success and Little Failure
“Complicated, cosmopolitan and utterly contemporary . . . these stories will jump right off the page into the reader’s imagination.”—Margot Livesy, author of Mercury and The Flight of Gemma Hardy
“Deceit and Other Stories gives us characters whose lives are constrained and yet also enriched by different borders, cultures, and traditions. A bracing and beautiful debut, full of fire and light.” —Laila Lalami, author of the forthcoming The Other Americans and The Moor’s Account
“Vanessa Hua inhabits in graceful and heartbreaking detail the people of her stories: strivers and betrayers, lovers and the landless, all of them on their way to transcendence in her hands.” —Susan Straight, author of Between Heaven and Here
★ 2019-12-09
Secrets and lies drive the protagonists to acts of desperation in Hua's dazzling story collection, first published in 2016 and now reissued with an additional three tales.
Most of the 13 stories are set in the San Francisco Bay area and revolve around characters from the Asian and Mexican immigrant communities who are caught between the expectations of their ancestral homelands and the promise of America. "My parents adhered to strict Chinese traditions that we learned to circumvent," says Calvin, a closeted engineer who is spending a romantic weekend at a B&B with his lover, Peter, in "The Responsibility of Deceit." For years, he and his sister "shared the responsibility of deceit, the big and little secrets that oiled the machinery of family expectations." But when friends of his parents walk into the dining room at breakfast, does Calvin have the courage to risk his parents' alienation by revealing his true self? In "Accepted," a darkly funny twist on the well-worn myth of the model minority, the pressure of filial piety propels the increasingly bizarre actions of Elaine Park, who pretends to be a Stanford University student to avoid disappointing her self-sacrificing family. Parents also deceive their children; in the moving "What We Have Is What We Need," the young son of undocumented Mexican immigrants discovers that his unfaithful mother has been leading "an alternate existence, happier than what she was born to." Hua writes with tenderness, humor, and empathy, imbuing her stories with lovely turns of phrase ("she had an eye for the fleeting"). Only "Line, Please," about a Hong Kong movie star fleeing a sex-photo scandal, strikes a slightly dated and false note given the city's current political turmoil.
Fans of Hua's acclaimed first novel, River of Stars (2018), will savor these unforgettable stories.
